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An Evaluation of Cetacean Bycatch in UK Fisheries: Problems and Solutions

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An Evaluation of Cetacean Bycatch in UK Fisheries: Problems and Solutions AN EVALUATION OF CETACEAN BYCATCH IN UK FISHERIES: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS A report to WDC and HSI Russell Leaper | February 2021 1 SUMMARY Cetacean bycatch has been a serious and persistent welfare and conservation issue in UK waters for many years. The most recent estimates indicate that over 1000 cetaceans are killed each year in UK fisheries. The species most affected are harbour porpoise, common dolphin, minke and humpback whale, but all cetaceans in UK waters are vulnerable. The level of suffering for mammals that become entangled in fishing gear has been described as ‘one of the grossest abuses of wild animal sensibility in the modern world’. Although potential solutions exist, the mitigation efforts to date have only achieved small reductions in the numbers of animals that are killed. The Fisheries Act 2020 commits the UK to minimise and, where possible, eliminate bycatch of sensitive species. The Act does not include details of how to achieve this, but requires reconsideration of fisheries management and practices, the phasing out of some gears, and a change of approach from strategies previously pursued. While gill nets are recognised as the highest risk gear category globally for cetacean bycatch, there are also serious bycatch problems associated with trawl fisheries and with creel fisheries using pots and traps. The different characteristics of these gear types and the types and size of vessels involved, require different approaches to bycatch monitoring and mitigation. Acoustic deterrent devices (ADDs), such as ‘pingers’, have been shown to be effective at reducing harbour porpoise bycatch in gill nets, but the reduction achieved so far has been small, they may cause unwanted disturbance or displacement, and they may not be effective for other species. Gill nets are a very small proportion of total UK fisheries (2% of value) but cause most of the cetacean bycatch. Hence there should be increased attention to moving away from gill nets towards alternative gears. There is a very large bycatch problem for common dolphins associated with trawl fisheries in the Bay of Biscay. Although this is occurring in adjacent rather than UK waters, adequate monitoring of similar trawl fisheries in UK waters is needed in order to enable a rapid response to indications of any changes in dolphin distribution or fishing effort that might result in bycatch, even for fisheries that currently appear to be lower risk. Mitigation plans that can be put into action as soon as there is any evidence that bycatch is occurring should be developed for all trawl fisheries that may pose a risk. Such plans could include testing strategies such as a ‘moving on’ procedure, where fishing activity moves away from areas –where bycatch is occurring. Creel fisheries pose an entanglement risk to cetaceans, especially larger species such as minke and humpback whales. Unlike gill nets which are often designed to catch species of similar size to a small cetacean, entanglements in creel gear involve interactions with parts of the gear that are not related to catching the target species. Thus, there is much greater scope for technical modifications to creel gears to reduce entanglement risk without affecting the target catch than there is for other gears such as gill nets. 2 INTRODUCTION Fisheries bycatch, including of cetaceans, seals, turtles and birds, is a welfare and conservation problem for many UK fisheries. The Fisheries Act 20201 contains a commitment that ‘incidental catches of sensitive species are minimised and, where possible, eliminated’ but does not provide details about how this might be achieved. With regards to cetacean bycatch, there has been a similar UK objective to that of the Fisheries Act for decades, as a Party to the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Sea (ASCOBANS), which has a target of reducing cetacean bycatch to zero. However, thus far the only tangible steps that the UK has taken towards this target in terms of mitigation have been as part of the UK’s obligations under EU Regulation 812/2004 which required the use of pingers on some gill nets in certain areas. This has contributed to an annual reduction of less than 15% of the total number of cetaceans that are killed in UK fisheries. Nevertheless, the UK Government has stated that the Fisheries Act will ensure that ‘sensitive marine species, such as dolphins, are protected2 suggesting there is now a greater commitment to eliminating cetacean bycatch. The result of previous inaction is that cetacean bycatch is a problem that has effectively continued largely unabated in UK fisheries. This should be viewed in the context not only of international conservation obligations, but also of strong public concern over the welfare of marine mammals. The level of suffering for mammals that become entangled in fishing gear has been described as ‘one of the grossest abuses of wild animal sensibility in the modern world2. The types of UK fisheries which have the highest risk of cetacean bycatch can be separated into three main types: (1) gill nets are recognised as the highest risk gear category globally and pose a serious risk to harbour porpoise wherever they are used around the UK and other cetaceans where their distribution overlaps with gill net use; (2) trawls have lower bycatch rates in UK fisheries but trawl fisheries in waters adjacent to those of the UK in the Bay of Biscay have a high bycatch of common dolphins; (3) creels (pots and traps) are largely considered to be a relatively environmentally friendly form of fishing but present an entanglement risk, particularly to large whales. The different characteristics of these gear types and the different types of vessels involved require different approaches to bycatch monitoring and mitigation. At the ‘Hauling up Solutions’ bycatch workshop in March 2019, it was recognised that monitoring and mitigation should be brought together as part of collaborative efforts between the fishing industry and other stakeholders4. For most UK fisheries using high risk gears there is a need for expanded independent monitoring in order to estimate total cetacean bycatch but already sufficient evidence of a bycatch problem to implement measures involving concurrent mitigation and monitoring. The collaborative effort required to work with fishermen to develop effective monitoring can also lead directly to a more proactive approach with actions to reduce bycatch. For those trawl fisheries which currently do not have a bycatch problem but use similar gear to that which is known to create a high risk in other areas there is a need for an awareness that problems may develop quickly and require a rapid response. [1] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/22/contents/enacted [2] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/flagship-fisheries-bill-becomes-law [3] M. Moore, A. Bogomolni, R. Bowman, P. Hamilton, C. Harry, A. Knowlton, S. Landry, D.S. Rotstein, K. Touhey, Fatally entangled right whales can die extremely slowly, Oceans 06, MTS-IEEE-Boston, Massachusetts, September 18–21, 2006, p.1–3. [4] https://www.cefas.co.uk/cetacean-bycatch-workshop/ 3 GILL NETS Gill net effort is recorded in UK fisheries statistics as ‘drift and fixed nets’ which includes a number of types of gear. Most UK gill nets are fixed set nets that are anchored to the sea bed (FAO code GNS). Set gill nets consist of a single vertical netting wall hanging between a float line and a weighted ground line. Other types of gill nets include tangle nets which are often set close to the sea bed and trammel nets (FAO code GTR, GTN) with layers of different mesh sizes, which are designed to entangle fish rather than simply trapping them by the gills5. Distribution of UK effort (indicated by live weight landed in ICES rectangles) Figure 1. Distribution of UK gill net (drift and set) live weight catches (Data from UK sea fisheries annual statistics report 2018) 4 MAIN SPECIES CAUGHT The top species caught in UK gill net fisheries by weight are monkfish and anglerfish (reported in UK data6 as a single category, ‘monks and anglers’), hake, pollack, sole and thornback ray. The main species caught by value are shown in Figure 2; although catches by weight of turbot and bass are lower than thornback ray, they are of higher value. In 2018, gill nets contributed 2% of UK live weight landings and 2% of the value. Most gill net vessels are less than 10m which is the vessel length at which many regulations change. The total value of gill net (termed ‘drift and set net’ in UK data) fisheries landings in 2018 was £24m. Prices for the most commonly caught species in 2018 varied from £2,100 per tonne for pollack up to £11,000 per tonne for turbot. Figure 2. Main species caught in gill nets by value (Data from UK sea fisheries annual statistics report 2018) MAIN BYCATCH CONCERNS Gill nets are recognised as the highest risk type of fishery for cetaceans globally, especially for small cetaceans in coastal areas. In the UK, the species most affected is the harbour porpoise, but a number of other species have been reported, and it should be assumed that most cetaceans are vulnerable to gill net bycatch. Northridge et al. (2019) estimated that the annual harbour porpoise bycatch in all UK gill net fisheries for 2018 would be between 845 and 1633 animals (best estimate 1150; CV=0.087) if there was no pinger use, but that this would likely have been reduced by around 200 animals if all boats over 12 m used pingers in the areas where these are required (the pinger requirements of EU Regulation 812/2004 which were also carried forward into EU 2019/1241 applied to 24 UK registered vessels in 2018).
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